How can I keep one color and turn the rest of an image black and white in Photoshop?
Asked 7/30/2012
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2 answers
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I want to create the effect where one part of a photo stays in color while everything else becomes black and white. For example, I’d like the green area to remain green, while the leg and sandal are converted to B&W. What is this effect called, and what’s a simple way to do it in Photoshop?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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This technique is called "selective desaturation", and you can do it using many techniques.
The following guide is for The Gimp, an opensource & free editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows machines:
You added a "photoshopt" tag, so if you're using that editor in particular this guide might be more of a help to you:
In general people do it to draw emphasis to a particular area of the photograph, by leaving it in colour. I've always felt you draw eyes to particular areas of pictures by making them interesting above all, but some people like the look.
Originally by user9236. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user9236
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This effect is commonly called selective desaturation.
In Photoshop, a simple way to do it is:
- Duplicate the background layer.
- Select the area you want to change to black and white — or select the color you want to keep, then invert the selection. Tools like Select > Color Range can help if the color is easy to isolate.
- Refine the selection if needed using Quick Mask or by painting on a layer mask.
- Convert the selected area to B&W using either:
- Image > Adjust > Desaturate, or
- a Black & White adjustment layer with a layer mask for more control.
The adjustment-layer method is usually better because it’s non-destructive and easier to tweak later.
So the basic idea is: make a selection or mask, then apply the black-and-white adjustment only to the parts you want desaturated.
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